The Bayview Hotel was built when rail lines were being extended to remote areas, leading to the expansion
of tourism and commerce.

Joseph Arano, a successful merchant, chose the Aptos location because of the newly-established rail connection.
The hotel was designed to serve a first class clientele of travelers, businessmen and well-to-do vacationers.
Two other comparable hotels were built in the area around the same time, but these no longer exist.

Because of its size, striking Italianate design and quality
construction, the Bayview Hotel was a focus of community activities for many decades. It fell into disuse between the
two world wars, when the economy of Santa Cruz County was virtually stagnant, but its popularity has been revived.

A historical marker reads:

Hotel Bayview

This establishment sits on a portion of the Mexican Grant "Rancho de Aptos"
conveyed to Rafael Castro by Jose Figueroa in 1833. The hotel was built in
1870 by Jose Arano, a French Basque who had married Castro's youngest daughter
Maria de las Augustia. It was moved 150 feet west in 1953 and remains today
the oldest hotel in Santa Cruz County.

It's not just that the people of the American West are restless, the buildings themselves sometimes pack up and
move when - for one reason or another - the neighborhood no longer suits them or the neighbors no longer want them
or opportunity waits down the road.

And when buildings remain in place, they are often searching for their identities.

Of the buildings and structures we have visited, the original Reno Arch
holds the record for number of moves. It has been moved five times since it was built in 1926.

Jax Truckee Diner holds the distance title. The
building moved from New Jersry to Pennsylvanis in 1948, then from Pennsylvania to Califonia in 1992.

Probably the most ambitious relocation occurred on July 4th 1904, when the Southern Pacific Railroad
loaded most of the town of Wadsworth, Nevada, onto rail cars and
transported the town thirty miles west to create
a new town which became known as Sparks.